Andreas auction of ten trillion dollars… for charity!

Between the efforts of Jason King and Andreas Antonopoulos, Coins in the Kingdom might secure it’s place as the most charitable Bitcoin conference of the year. At the end of the first day of the conference, Andreas Antonopoulos was approached by Chris DeRose for a signature on a unique piece of numismatic history: a Ten Trillion Dollar Zimbabwe Reserve Note.

After the bill signing, Andreas was asked what charity he would most like to see a donation be given to. To this, Andreas responded “RAINN.” A few weeks thereafter, a charity auction commenced and is currently live at cryptothrift.com.

The auction is available to all members of the general public, and at the time of writing is currently selling at an approximate price of 500mBTC (half a Bitcoin). The details of the event, are clearly denoted in the item description alongside a note that all proceeds from the auction (and any funds sent to the custodian address) will be converted to fiat and donated to RAINN. Though dogecoiners are typically the ones credited for new and wacky twists on the charity scene, Bitcoiners aren’t without their own sense of creativity and civic duty.

In the bill being auctioned, alongside his signature, Andreas added the comment “Inflation Matters” to the bill. Certainly this quote neatly sums up the story of Zimbabwe’s ill-fated national currency. The story of the ten trillion dollar Zimbawe note, though incredulous, is nonetheless true. In the first decade of our millenium, the Republic of Zimbabwe was experiencing inflation at rates unparalleled by any other economy in recent years. During this period, inflation rose sharply between the early years of the 2000’s, up until the printing of the ten trillion dollar note, the last denomination that was printed, in April of 2009. Despite making inflation illegal in 2007 (yes, politicians really signed this decree into law), the government was unable to curb the runaway devaluation of its currency, and informally switched to using the US Dollar as its primary currency in 2009. As of today, an ‘unsigned’ Ten Trillion dollar bill is worth nothing past its novelty factor, and cannot be converted into any other currency.

As for RAINN, “Chelsea Bowers,” an official spokesperson of the organization suggested we re-iterate the organizations mission statement in our write-up of the auction. Their noble mission is as follows:

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and was named one of “America’s 100 Best Charities” by Worth magazine. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE and online.rainn.org) in partnership with more than 1,100 local rape crisis centers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help victims and ensure that rapists are brought to justice.

When asked whether the organization intends to receive the funds in Bitcoin or fiat, Chelsea replied “At this time, we don’t have a [way] to accept Bitcoin (although it sounds like it’s something we should implement!).” Let’s hope our charity efforts leave a positive impression on RAINN, and shows the world that Bitcoiners are commited to leaving a positive impact on the world around them.